Heaven's Phantasm
by Fyliwion
Summary: AU Kuroba Kaito forsakes all magic after the loss of his father due to his magic tricks and turns to detective work to find his father's murderers, leaving Nakamori Aoko to take up what his father left behind...


-1Disclaimer: Don't own DC or MK, definitely not definitely all Gosho.

**Chapter One **

He grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him and he had a frown etched into his face. His blue eyes were piercing into her.

"You don't have to do this Aoko!"

She swerved looking up at him defiantly. Her face was a mask of fury, to match his own anger.

She grabbed her arm away from him, "Don't give me that Kaito! You know better! Do you really think it was his fault? Don't be so stupid, maybe you should open up your eyes."

"Maybe you should open up yours! Dammit Aoko your father's the chief inspector!! What will happen when he catches you? Don't you owe him that-"

She tore away from him this time. She nearly broke poker face completely as her eyes grew livid. "Your father DIED trying to do this! Died because he was trying to do what he thought was right, and you won't even honor his memory. Don't you dare lecture me on the duties of a parent! Mine thought catching KID was more important than taking care of his own daughter!"

"Oh is that so? What would you know! At least you're father's still alive!" He hissed. "What if your father had gotten killed in one of those bloody heists huh? What if it had been your father caught in the cross fire because of some stupid gem he just wouldn't give up! Would you REALLY say this? What if he cared more about a gem then his own so-"

This time she slapped him. He thought he had glimpsed tears for a moment, but they were hidden the next as though the thought had never crossed her mind. He suddenly realized that somewhere along the way her poker face had gotten near as good as his father's. He'd never been especially good at it….

"_Always keep poker face…_"

Aoko had been the prodigy… not him. He wondered just how many times his father had wished his son has been as blessed as his best friend. He was never any good as a magician, he doubted he even remembered how to pull a rabbit from a hat now a days.

Looking at the girl in front of him who had murder written on his eyes he rubbed the side of his face where she had slapped him. "That was uncalled for-" he said slowly.

"You know it wasn't. How dare you. Your father loved you. Your father left this behind for _you!_ You wouldn't even listen to the recording!"

"He always liked you more-" he snapped.

"Well then we can say my father always liked you more too! Look you're already becoming a detective! You might as well be his apprentice! You think I like that? I know he's disappointed in me… but what am I suppose to do? You won't take up the duty left to you and someone has to-"

Kaito turned away eyes dark, "No one should be forced to walk in the footsteps of my father. It's too cruel."

There was a deathly silence between them and Aoko spoke first. "You want to talk about cruel? You're the one being cruel Kaito. Your being cold and mean…" Her voice was level but he'd known her long enough to detect the hurt in it, "What happened to you? What happened to the boy that gave me that rose to cheer me up when we were little? I don't know who you are now."

He turned to look at her and his face for once just as cold of a mask as her own. If he had followed in his father's footsteps and become KID perhaps this was the look he might have taken up on heist nights. Either way at that exact moment there were two Kaitou KID's looking at each other- and both suffering far more then anyone their age had a right to.

Kaito replied in the same voice he would use when confronting any criminal, "He died when his father lost his life because of such silly games. He stopped it when he realized his father saw a gem more important then his wife and son. He realized that there are more important things then playing to baubles and toys that only hurt people-" He took a few steps towards Aoko and tilted her chin up.

"He grew up when he realized that sometimes some dreams had to be given up to protect those you love. That coming up with excuses for selfish desires just hurts those around you-" he gave her one last look and turned around to step out of the room.

It was her eyes that burned this time.

And not just with tears.

Aoko had loved Kuroba Toichi perhaps in some ways more than she did her own father. The man was like a serrgoate father to her since hers was gone so much, and her mother had died before she'd really gotten to knowher. More then once she stayed over at Kaito's late into the evening just to watch Kuroba-sama teacher her another trick that she'd have mastered by the next day, or on nights that her father needed to work late and had no time to take care of a young child.

At first when she began her play dates with the Kuroba family, she would become frustrated that Kaito could juggle balls around her ten times over, or pull out trick after trick from seemingly thin air. She could never figure out where the roses or confetti came from, at least not at first.

But the more she stayed over and the more she began to pick up, until it was her turning Kaito's hair pink when he wasn't looking and sending the boy bouncing.

In Toichi's shoes he started to see the girl as a daughter. He and his wife would laugh as the two kids would chase each other around the house leaving trails of scarves, petals, and cards in their wake. They were closer than any children could ever be, and he was pleased for both children.

Kaito tended to keep to himself before he met Aoko. He'd show off; however, he often kept his distance from other children due to his intelligence and tricks. Aoko on the other hand had often been soft spoken due to her father so often being gone. She quickly opened up though after meeting Kaito, and growing closer to the Kuroba family.

The little girl who had once been so adamant at becoming a police woman quickly decided that she wanted to become a magician just like Kuroba-sama and Kaito.

She was at least intelligent enough not to mention to her father that she was beginning to respect Kaitou KID more each day. Not that she didn't hate him. On the contrary she still held quite a bit of resentment towards the man who had stolen her father from her; however, his tricks were far too dazzling to not impress her.

Thus it was Aoko started to get more and more ahead in her tricks, and soon discovered that she had a knack for the tricks. She'd practice nonstop when she went home, and before long began to be the one juggling circles around Kaito.

The boy seemed good natured about it, and he wouldn't lose his best friend for the world, but perhaps that was one of there reasons he started looking at some of her detective stuff. It was a sort of trade. She learned magic and he started looking at police stuff, and discovered his own knack for working out puzzles, riddles, and getting out of tight spots.

It made for quite an interesting pair.

Toichi began wondering what he'd gotten himself into teaching both children at once. He dodged the fact that anytime now her father was going to be seeking his head both day and night. He half expected her to be dragged in front of him by Nakamori-keibu for turning someone's hair blue or the like. In many ways the Nakamori girl could be worse than his own Kaito.

Together they were like a pair of demons.

Yet it was perhaps the best times he could remember until his night job got rougher.

Less time with the kids, and more time being KID. Sometimes he felt bad about what he was teaching the inspector's daughter, wondering how long before Nakamori-keibu picked up on something except the girl was quite skilled at magic, and Toichi always had a soft spot for apprentices. Especially girls who looked up at him and pleaded for another trick.

Disguise, magic, voice, stealth, and poker face he would teach it all even if it meant his own demise. He'd learned that the hard way, and he began to wondering if he'd made a mistake in taking the young girl under his wing. Perhaps it was when he realized she could hold a poker face better than many adults he started to muse over his decision. But by that point it was too late, and he wouldn't have a choice later on.

He knew his job had gotten rough, but he had hoped he would last longer than the next year. He had taken precautions, but one thing he hadn't expected was such a public performance to go wrong.

And when it came to making sure someone was dead, the organization never left survivors.

The legacy he left behind was meant to be taken up years later, after all Toichi had hidden his lair quite well; however, perhaps even he had underestimated the combination of both children.

Kaito had become quite excellent when it came to detective work. He had always loved the Lupin books he'd stolen off his father's shelf, and the _Night Baron_ books by Kudo Yuusaku. Yet after meeting Aoko he began growing a fondness for the Holmes cases (He still liked Lupin more, but the cases in Sherlock could be more fun) and other detective novels.

It was something he really did enjoy.

Between he and the Inspector's daughter, they never thought for one moment Kuroba Toichi had died in an _accident_.

Even having figured out most of their suspicions; however, it still took them several years to figure out exactly _where_ Kuroba Toichi had hidden his lair.

And that had been Aoko who found it, because after his father's death the boy couldn't quite bring himself to do magic.

Instead he started doing more and more with the police. He looked into everything he could that dealt with the law. He focused on what her father could teach him, and while Aoko submerged herself further into magic tricks Kaito kept to a dose of reality.

Perhaps it wouldn't have happened that way if she hadn't seem so focused on keeping his father's legacy alive. For the first weeks after she did everything to try to get Kaito up, but his poker face wouldn't break until nearly a month later where he yelled that it was magic that had killed his father, and he would never take it up again.

She'd almost burst into tears, except that Kuroba-sama's words echoed in her head, "Never break Poker face."

So she went on with magic, while Kaito started to go towards being a detective, and neither of them thought of anything else…

Not until she found the KID's lair and everything came to head again…

Perhaps it would have been better for her to take her first suspcion. Perhaps she shouldn't' have told him what she had found, except the knowledge that Kuroba-sama had been Kaitou KID was too big, and the message in the room was only addressed to Kaito not her.

She hadn't meant to listen to it… but she couldn't even find the off switch.

Except finally they could find out why his father was killed. Finally they could get revenge for whoever had killed Kuroba-sama and between the two of them no one could stand in the way.

But instead Kaito exploded.

And she nearly lost a friend and brother this time to KID, because Kaito had turned his back so firmly on the career Aoko began to wonder exactly who was the Kuroba, and who was the Nakamori.

_A/N: It's definitely AU. I just thought "what if Aoko had been good at Magic Tricks and Kaito had felt resentment for his father." And well… this is what we got. I don't know when I'll get around to updating, but I've mapped out a couple of the next chapters so we'll see. _


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